June 2008 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

AMSAT-DL at HAM RADIO 2008
by Peter Guelzow 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

HAM RADIO - the international amateur radio exhibition takes place from the 27th until the 29th June 2008 in Friedrichshafen near Lake Constance. http://www.hamradio-friedrichshafen.de/html/en/index.php This year the HAM RADIO is focused under the topic "Satellites and Space Activities in Hamradio". To meet this priority, AMSAT-DL in cooperation with the DARC offers a special show, lectures and a panel discussion. Original flight hardware will be presented at AMSAT-DL's booth "A1-749". Furthermore, interplanetary space probes, million kilometers away, will be received live. The new SDX (Software Defined Transponder), which is currently under construction for the new amateur radio satellite AMSAT P3-E can be used for live experimentation at the booth and throughout the fairgrounds during the exhibition. Here are the key dates: Permanent exhibition in the foyer-West (satellite models and posters) Freddy de Guchteneire, ON6UG, live reception of interplanetary space probes. Appointments are announced at the AMSAT-DL booth. Friday, 10:00, Room Austria, grand opening AMSAT-DL Speaker for the opening event: Prof. Dr. Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC Friday, 14:00 to 14:45, Action Stage Satellite simulation live on the action stage The SDX (Software Defined Transponder) for AMSAT P3-E, with further information at first hand by Howard Long, G6LVB, AMSAT-UK Saturday, 10:00 to 10:45, Hall 2, Room 3 Peter Gülzow, DB2OS, AMSAT-DL: Current status of activities for the construction and launch of the new satellite AMSAT P3-E. Saturday, 11:00 to 11:45, Hall 2, Room 3 Dr. Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA, AMSAT-DL: The interplanetary Mars mission AMSAT P5-A Saturday, 11:00 to 11:45, Action Stage A panel discussion on the topic: "amateur radio satellite - Where have they gone?" Moderator: Thilo Kootz, DL9KCE, DARC Guests: Peter Gülzow DB2OS, AMSAT-DL; Hartmut Päsler, DL1YDD, AMSAT-DL; Ralf Göß, DL1JU, Satellite User; Steffen Schöppe, DL7ATE, board member DARC. Sunday, 10:00 to 12:00, Hall 2, Room 3 Video presentation of various projects by AMSAT-DL We are looking forward to seeing you and to answer your questions! Visit us in Hall A1, booth 749 !! 73s Peter, DB2OS

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Re: AMSAT-DL DONATIONS
by Wayne Estes 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Dave Guimont wrote: Can you give us the url for donations to AMST-DL...in English.. A lot of us out here who would be willing to help with P3E.... Wayne replies: AMSAT (North America) collects money for P3E. If you give through AMSAT-NA it is probably tax-deductible in the U.S. Since the online store is down now, call Martha at the AMSAT office to make a donation to P3E. I think my President's Club renewal form allowed me to specify where the money goes. I selected the "P3E" check box. Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik

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AO-7 Record
by SV1BSX 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Congrat's to Joe - K3SZH, for the new record on AO-7's online LogBook ! http://www.planetemily.com/ao7/userStats.php More than 6000 points ! Well done Joe ! 73, Mak SV1BSX

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AMSAT-DL DONATIONS
by Dave Guimont 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Hi Peter, Can you give us the url for donations to AMST-DL...in English.. A lot of us out here who would be willing to help with P3E.... Tnx... 73, Dave, WB6LLO dguimon1(a)san.rr.com Disagree: I learn.... Pulling for P3E...

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Working the sats with FT-530 HT
by Bill Dzurilla 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Hi, Would like to use my 530 to work the sats and have encountered a couple of problems. * First tried full duplex with the left hand VFO set to uplink frequency and the right hand VFO set to downlink. To transmit, the left side must be active. But it's necessary to change the downlink frequency to account for doppler, and I can't figure out how to do this except by pressing ALT, changing the frequency, then pressing ALT again. Is there a better way? Some HTs have a button that allows tuning on the sub VFO, but if the 530 has it I have not yet found it. * Next tried half duplex by setting a memory on the left VFO with the 2 meter uplink and the 70cm downlink. Problem is that the left VFO can't be set to tune in 5 khz steps on 70 cm (it can be set to 5 khz on 2m), and 5 khz tuning is needed for the sats. Is there any way to tune 70cm in 5 khz steps on the left VFO? The right hand VFO can be set to tune in 5 khz steps on 70 cm, but it will not transmit on 2m, so only the left VFO can be used for this purpose. I have heard the 530 is a great satellite HT but it will not be satisfactory unless I can resolve the tuning problem somehow. Thanks for any advice and 73, Bill NZ5N

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TR-851 help?
by SV1BSX 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Hi all and sorry for "off topics" has anyone experience with Kenwood TR-851E ? I have a few questions, the Owner manual did not help me. "OFF list" your Emails please . 73, Mak SV1BSX Email: sv1bsx(a)yahoo.gr URL : http://sv1bsx.50webs.com

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Delfi-C3 / DO-64 status update 16 June 10:00 UTC
by Wouter Jan Ubbels 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Hi all, another status update of the Delfi-C3 / DO-64 satellite: 1. The spacecraft continues to work fine, we have received over 270000 telemetry frames so far, thanks so much! 2. A magnificent model of the satellite, made by Stefan Wagener VE4NSA is available on our photo weblog at http://www.delfic3.nl/photoblog/ 3. The spacecraft still experiences the downlink dropout issue, since this is a non-critical issue, and since we are limited in our possibilities to do something about it, we have decided to leave it as it is. If the spacecraft's downlink is off when over our groundstation, we will command it back on. Our expectation is that this does not occur when the spacecraft is in transponder mode, so once we switch it to that mode, it should be fine. 4. The TX distortion issue has turned out to be a separate issue (contrary to our earlier assumptions, it is not related to the dropouts), related to the behaviour of the (battery-less) power system. This is also non-critical, and has shown to solve itself after the spacecraft has rotated a bit more. 73 on behalf of the Delfi-C3 team, Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ

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Namaste Blog
by Alan P. Biddle 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

Morning, There is always a hunger for knowing what is going on at AMSAT. Probably semi-old news, but they have added a Namaste Ground Station link to the Quick Access Project Links on WWW.AMSAT.ORG Of considerable interest to me is if you go there you will find an RSS feed for your reader. Skimming through a few posts brought up some very interesting technical reports. Another great addition to the Wiki keeping people informed! Alan WA4SCA ----------------------------------- There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture from such a trifling investment of fact. Mark Twain

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LVB Tracker Installation Instructions
by Gould Smith 21 Jun '08

21 Jun '08

I have received a few questions about installing the LVB Tracker this week. The installation and setup instructions can be found at the LVBTracker.com web site. This information should have been passed along to the people that got the unit at Dayton or from the AMSAT office, but apparently was not. This will be corrected. The instructions on the web site should be straight forward, but if you have any questions send me an email and we will work it out. The first thing you need to do is to install the FTDI driver for your operating system, and then talk with the LVBTracker unit via a serial port and a terminal program. You must be able to do this before you can proceed. Sometimes the driver does not install correctly. Check via Control Panel, System, Device Manager (for Windows) that the driver is indeed installed correctly. Under Ports, a serial port should be assigned (without a warning) as a USB serial port. 73, Gould, WA4SXM

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repost from ARRL letter - DXCC on UHF!
by Nate Duehr 20 Jun '08

20 Jun '08

Wow. Mostly by EME... I thought this group would find this amazing... ==> GERMAN HAM CLAIMS FIRST DXCC ON 432 MHZ The world of Amateur Radio DXing has passed a new milestone: On Friday, June 6, Jan Bruinier, DL9KR, of Niedernhausen, Germany, worked his 100th country on 432 MHz (70 cm) via moonbounce (EME) and CW. Samek Zdenek, OK1DFC, and Hofbauer Zdenek, OK3RM, were getting ready to go on an EME DXpedition to Macedonia. Before they left, Samek asked Bruinier to help test out the equipment; Bruinier gave him a beacon, aiming a signal off the moon. According to VHF guru and conductor of QST's "World Above 50 MHz" column Gene Zimmerman, W3ZZ, this is done by transmitting a series of CW dashes and then stopping to listen for the signal to return a little more than a second later. The moon averages 384,000 km from the Earth; radio waves travel at ~300,000 km/sec. After one of these transmissions, Bruinier was excited to hear Samek appear on frequency with a 549 signal. Thus, after an exchange of calls and reports, Bruinier's 100th country on 432 MHz was in the log. Once his QSL cards are confirmed in the near future, he will become DXCC #1 on 70 cm. Bruinier's 70 cm EME operations began in 1977. He had followed the exploits of the early EME pioneers in QST, operators like KH6UK, W4HHK, W3GKP and W1FZJ who was conductor of the "World Above 50 Mc" during much of the 1960s. Jan and his family moved to a semirural location in Germany in 1976 where he could put up decent VHF antennas. Working initially on his own, he built an array of 16 ten-element quagis (antennas with single quad loop driven elements and reflectors and 8 Yagi directors) following the design described in QST by Wayne Overbeck, K6YNB (now N6NB). After a few false starts with other tubes, he obtained an Eimac 8938 and built a near-legal limit amplifier. The station exciter was a set of Drake twins as an IF strip using homebrew transverters with an increasingly sensitive group of GaAsFET preamplifiers, always working at the state-of-the-art. As time progressed, Bruinier built a bigger amplifier capable of running 1500 W continuously to deal with the high duty cycle found in EME operation -- long, slow CW with two minute transmissions at a time -- and receiver systems that yielded noise temperatures of 60 kelvins that could detect 7 dB of noise when he pointed his array into the ground. He eventually transitioned from the quagis to an array of DL6WU design Yagis fed with 1-5/8 inch Heliax, currently having a gain of 28.4 dBd. For comparison, this is slightly more gain than the 28 foot Kennedy parabolic dish has at 432 MHz. According to Zimmerman, the range of contacts covered by the 70 cm band is less than 1000 km; even under the most enhanced conditions, it is less than double that. "To work the 100 entities needed for DXCC, EME communications are essential. EME is the most demanding form of operation there is in Amateur Radio," he said. "Every single aspect of the station must be optimized: The equipment, the antennas, the feed lines and most particularly, the talent of the operator. Even 1 dB may make the difference between a contact and no contact. Bruinier's achievement was accomplished the old fashioned way -- by dint of hard work, excellent equipment, big antennas and many, many hours on the air looking for new countries and not missing many, if any, DXpeditions to the many countries where there is no 432 MHz EME activity." Bruinier told Zimmerman that many people going to many countries on all continents made this award possible: The Five Bells Group, the Yota Sawe Group, Michale Kohla, DL1YMK, and Monica; Bernd Mischlewski, DF2ZC; Mark De Munck, ON5FF (now EA8FF); Bernhard Dobler, DJ5MN; Mart Sakalov, SM0ERR; Dimitris Vittorakis, SV1BTR; Gudmund Wannberg, SM2BYA; Frank Hobelmann, DL8YHR; Joachim Werner, DL9MS, and Allen Katz, K2UYH, among others, as well as groups from Russia, Spain, France and Denmark. If you would like to read more details about Bruinier's career as an EMEer, please look for his story in his own words in the "World Above 50 MHz" column in the September 2008 issue of QST. -- Nate Duehr nate(a)natetech.com

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